OneRepublic Premiere “A.I.” Featuring Peter Gabriel

OneRepublic’s long touted collaboration with Peter Gabriel is finally here, one week in advance of their fourth studio album’s release. “A.I.” continues the band’s evolution into more electronic sounds, darkening the two bright pop numbers, “Wherever I Go” and “Kids,” they’ve already released.

The five minute song is an experiment in pop and electronic music, moving far past the traditional three-minute mark. “Remember when we met?/ We fell in love on a Sunday/ Yeah, I’ll never forget/ The way that you spelled my name/ It took me a year/ To find a new attraction/ My hope and my fear is human interaction,” lead singer Ryan Tedder sings in the opening verse, before he segues into a chorus about craving automatic and artificial love.

Gabriel’s verse marks the second, and drips with emotion and longing and alienation all at the same time. The lyrics switch slightly from what Tedder sang, but keep the structure overall. “Remember when we met?/ I got obsessed on a Monday,” he sings.

The operatic guitar solo that seems to end the song actually transitions into a pause, a moment of quiet, before things switch gears entirely and build into a moody song that showcases Gabriel’s vocals to their full extent.